What's the latest Horror DVD you've bought?

[David Hawk]

So come on all you scaremeisters and gorehounds, what's the latest DVD addition to your horror collection?

Me, well i laid my boney fingers on Xavier Palud and David Moreau's feature debut Them.



Granted the Directing duo rely on many of the standard scares of the genre but their ability to twist every creepy moment out of the age old fear of being attacked in your own home is genuinely frightening.

Here's a taster if you haven't caught it yet



I bought this off the back of a recommendation, which i rarely do and i'm so glad i did.
If you don't have Them in your collection, put it on your birthday list pronto.

[Sheridan Passell]

I went though a spate of buying tons of horror dvds but then reached a point where I realised I owned all the good ones. So it's a rare thing these days. If Zodiac counts, then that's the last one. Great film.

[Tyler Lovemark]

Well, the last one I received from a friend was The Shining.  Which, aside from Alien, is my favorite horror movie.  The last one I bought for myself was Audition I think.  I actually just watched that (Audition) the other day.  The last third of the film is always a trip.

I'm not gonna lie, when I saw the picture for Them I initially thought it was a remake of the 50's giant bug movie.  Being in the states and all I had never heard of this until now, but it definitely looks like I will have to check it out.

[The Movie Whore]

The last one I bought was Rob Zombie's re-imagining of Halloween.  I loved it from beginning to end. 

[David Hawk]

Are you currently on medication MW? just thought i'd ask.

[The Movie Whore]

No I am not why do you ask?

[Tyler Lovemark]

I'm going to be as bluntly honest as I can here.  When I walked out of the Halloween remake, the first thing I said to my friend was "I'm not exaggerating or anything, but I think that is the worst movie I've ever seen.  I honestly can't think of anything worse."

If I was as young and naive as I was like say, a year ago, I would've asked for my money back.  Now it's like triage.  I've already wasted money on the movie, not gonna spend any more resources (i.e. caring) on it.

[Chooch]

Let me ask you then. What was your problem with the movie? I think I might know the answer and it'll be interesting to hear your insight. Let's flush it out. Perhaps I'll use it in the piece that I'm currently writing. And at what point (in the movie) did you make this statement of walking out of the movie?

BTW, did you read my review on Prom Night? Now THAT was a bad movie, but I gave it a big, fat B-. In fact, I can name 50 horrible, horrible movies that I'd really love to watch, own even.

-CHOOCH

I'm going to be as bluntly honest as I can here.  When I walked out of the Halloween remake, the first thing I said to my friend was "I'm not exaggerating or anything, but I think that is the worst movie I've ever seen.  I honestly can't think of anything worse."

If I was as young and naive as I was like say, a year ago, I would've asked for my money back.  Now it's like triage.  I've already wasted money on the movie, not gonna spend any more resources (i.e. caring) on it.

[The Movie Whore]

I'm going to be as bluntly honest as I can here.  When I walked out of the Halloween remake, the first thing I said to my friend was "I'm not exaggerating or anything, but I think that is the worst movie I've ever seen.  I honestly can't think of anything worse."

Those are some strong statements my good man.  I think I am with Chooch on this one.  I would love to hear what you specifically had a problem with? 


Chooch if you want a classic bad movie horror movie look up Killer Klowns from Outer Space.  It is so bad it's quite entertaining. 

[Tyler Lovemark]

Let's clarify something real quick.  When I say "walked out of" I mean walked out of like when the credits started.  I've never left a movie before it ended and won't start anytime soon.  Probably should've cleared that up in my first post, my bad.

But my main gripe with the movie is that it wasn't scary.  The first Halloween movie was a great exercise in suspense.  The constant flashes of him in the windows and the clever camera work made watching people walk around for forty minutes (essentially) thrilling simply because of the dramatic irony.

Another thing was the death sequences.  None of them were that memorable for me.  While the original didn't have the "money shot" thing like in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street, the buildup to the deaths and the bluntness in their execution definitely left a strong impression on me.  With the remake, they all felt very, dare I say, by the book.  Or at least nothing special.

I also don't like how he handled the Michael Myers mythology.  The entire thing which was creepy about the character in the original movie is that we knew relatively little about him.  He could've been a story in anyone's town.  And he certainly wasn't portrayed as human, which definitely helped in the mythology/urban legend department.  With Rob Zombie's take, I felt a little confused.  For the first half of the movie (roughly), we see him grow up and develop into a monster.  It was almost as if Zombie was trying to get us to sympathize with the kid, or at the very least grasp that he is a human being (albeit, not one I'd like to call a friend).  Then wham!  Second half, his humanity thrown at the window and a complete reversal.  No longer is Michael Myers a human, but now he is back to being "the shape".  As a viewer, I felt pretty mixed messages coming from the director and felt a tad insulted that I just watched a load of exposition which has little to no effect on the rest of the film.

I did get pretty bored towards the end of the movie.  The entire chase sequence was a bit too extended, and it just became tedious watching several of the scenes.  Great example of this being the sequence with Laurie up in the ceiling and Myers thrashing away with the board.  Too extended, too loud, not scary.  I think that pretty much describes my take on the film as a whole.

On the bright side, at least Danielle Harris was in the movie.

[The Movie Whore]

Fair enough.  I have not watched it since I bought when it came out so I am going to give it another watch here tonight or tomorrow before I respond. 

[Chooch]

Thanks for the response! And, FWIW, you answered the question EXACTLY how I felt that you would. Dead on. I'm happy that you clarified the walking out on part... thanks.

Now, here's what's interesting. I feel that, in general, horror movies have little progress to make. I'm 40 years old, btw, and have been a fan of horror since my tween years. I also write fiction and screenplays. There, that qualifies me.  We've seen it all. There's nothing that any horror writer/director can do to scare us anymore. Is there?

And this is how I think that Rob has grown as a writer/director. Not to mention that this is good for the horror genre, in general. Halloween (the original) is one of my top 5 favorite movies. It is nearly perfection and I share your opinion of the original MM. This is the difference with Rob's version: humanity. Rob added humanity to MM. He added the relationships - and to tell you the truth, this is where I find the real horror of the movie. We, as a society, failed MM. We create these monsters and we see it, what, once a month now? Once a week? Kids going off of the deep end, shooting up their schools, etc...

I'm sick to death of watching "elaborate" ways of killing somebody. I want to see feelings! I want to know that these guys are my buddies, my neighbors, my son or father. That I trust these people with my babies, but they are really thinking about sinking them in a bathtub... Watching the way in which Dr. Loomis nearly breaks down...he loves MM - that 's what fascinated me. And I didn't have a problem with the death scenes - again, I want to see something realistic. Not blood splatters, but deep red, arterial blood...

So, I guess, it's the added humanity that throws us off when it's in a horror movie. But, remember, that's why we love Hannibal Lecter. 

Anyway, good conversation. Yes.

-CHOOCH

[The Movie Whore]

Chooch you took the words out of my mouth. 

[David Hawk]

Great dbating, lets keep it up guys :-)

My two pence worth.

The problem i had with RB's Halloween IS that he added humanity to MM, in JC's movie MM was evil, pure and simple. There was nothing in his eyes but pure evil, no humanity, no emotion, just evil.
So to add humanity to MM took away the whole essence of the movie. There was no need to add any other backstory to MM the scary part is that he can't be reasoned with, he can't be manipulated emotionally because he is just evil.

That's why Zombies remake made no sense, if he had the humanity then MM could effectively be reasoned with but there wasn't any attempt to do that, why? if he was 'made' into a monster then there would be something to bring him out as there would've been something in his life that made him happy once even if it was pulling legs off bugs.
This was never a film about how society makes monsters it was about evil and how it resides in all of us and its the decisions we make that dictate whether we control that side of us or not.

I genuinely think that Zombie could be a good director with the right material but this wasn't it.

[The Movie Whore]

For me humanizing MM makes him scarier.  He could be real and living just down the street.  I thought Zombie did a wonderful job creating a MM that could live anywhere and could be just that one step away from killing. Rob never wanted to do a scene by scene recreation and really does the new Psycho hold a candle to the original? 

I am typically against remakes unless you are taking a horrible movie and making it better.  Rob was paying homage to a film he loved.  He knew no matter what he did there were going to be people that would not like it because of the original.  While we sit here and discuss it acting like we know what we (I used we to include myself) are talking about I know I would not have been able to do any better and possibly neither could any of the rest us.  You never know possibly one of us could. 

His actors love him.  Sid Haig puts Rob on a short list of directors he would work with with out even knowing what the project is, just knowing he is directing is all he needs to know to agree to do the film. 

[dalmatianjaws]

Severence. Finally rented this after much debate, it looked cute but overly influenced by the Pegg/Wright/Frost combo meal.

I went out the next day and bought it. What a clever, original, FANTASTICALLY directed film. I love that it was comedy without being spoof and incorporated REAL drama into the gore. It has such a unique vibe and worked to redeem the "slasher" genre in my eyes.

Oh, and I dig that it's not a faceless, amoral killer. I love that "he" speaks, shows his face, etc. SO much scarier.

[Chooch]

Severence - I'll have to take a looksee.

Ah, humanity, it is evil in itself, yet without it, much eviler.

Is eviler a word?

Great points. Now, let me get something off of my chest - when is somebody going to do a REAL sequel to Friday the 13th? One where Jason's mother is the killer, since, well, she is the real killer....

I'm currently pitching a screenplay, named "Whitey" around. I wrote it by asking myself, "self, what's the scariest thing that could ever happen to you?" to which I replied, "if somebody looked me in the eye, say, in a public place, and said "I choose you. I'm going to...(fill in the blank)"

knowing, seeing my killer, smelling him, understanding that my life is ending. soon.

That's scary.... to me.

-CHOOCH

[T.ROSS]

The Last Horror DVD I bought was wes Craven's The Serpant and the Rainbow, here is the trailer...




-T.ROSS PRODUCTIONS

[T.ROSS]

I also bought Fright Night at the same time...






-T.ROSS PRODUCTIONS

[Tori]

Severance was an awesome film I loved it, thats on my list to buy.
The most recent DVD I bought was The Orphanage, great movie if you don't speak Spanish and don't mind reading subtitles check it out.